Get serious about the future capital value of your business and start to say ‘no’ to customers

Saying ‘no’ to customers is hard, and turning work down probably goes against everything you believe in as a business owner.

But saying ‘yes’ to customers all the time increases the complexities that exist within your business as you manage the different products and services to meet expectations and keep everyone happy.

If you want to make your business less reliant on you AND build its capital value, then be brave and say ‘no’…

So, to what are you saying ‘no’?

To get your business ‘sale-ready’, you need to find its Standard Service Offering (SSO). This is a service that you do well, one that clients find valuable and that can be taught to your team.

You need to fully commit to your SSO if you are serious about building a simpler business model and making your business less reliant on you.

But what do you do when you get a large, valuable order from a customer for a service that is not part of your SSO?

John Warrillow suggests that if you are serious about eventually selling your business, you need to turn down non-standard orders. This may mean saying goodbye to large contracts with regular customers – NOT EASY!

John believes that this is most difficult at the start of the process of preparing your business for sale because you are in the transition phase of moving from a multi-service/product business to an SSO business.

But you need to commit to your SSO even when customers and team members are pushing you with their expectations. It requires bravery, but it’s important to start that journey.

As you build your sales, profits, cash and the resulting capital value whilst only selling your SSO, you will start to see the benefits to you and your business.